Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

Wonder what happened to Jaxon. Haven't seen him post in a bit and we're approaching some switch heavy hitters in the next couple months.

@NintendoByNature If you mean JaxonH, I thought I saw someone say he started a new job.

@Grumblevolcano this is giving me huge Wii U vibes and i dont like this.

Why do that when you can call it the Switch U?

Being serious, if Arkham Knight can somehow run on the system then I am sure RDR2 can. Although they might run really really bad.

A bit of yes to both I'd think. I would think a senior position like that (based on the selection criteira) they would be hiring with an the expectation that whoever gets it to be working there for several years. I don't think a company would be making that kind of commitment based on where one particular game is in the development cycle.....

All things being equal we're probably a good year away from Metroid Prime 4. So whoever got that role would no doubt be involved with some asset creation. And maybe they end up doing some DLC for Prime 4, who knows. But I would think most of their career at Metroid would be working on whatever Retro does next

edit: Also consider me +1 to the theory that the RDR2 classification thing is possibly relating to new hardware

@skywake Ah thanks for that. I didn’t realise this would be the kind of role that does asset creation. I just assumed it was the big scene set pieces and characters etc. But that makes sense that all the smaller things need designers too. I’m sure there are people at Retro already working on prototypes for the next project too so this role would likely play a role in whatever gets the green light.

@Grumblevolcano Ugh, I hope you aren’t right. I don’t know if I even want the next system to be called a Switch even though it’ll still switch. Unless it has a descriptive word to set it apart like calling it Super, Nintendo Switch (2nd Generation) is just asking for confusion among the masses. Xbox might get away with confusing console names but not Nintendo.

Unless there's a gimmick that will make the new platform a vastly difference experience, there's no reason to deviate from the Switch branding. Keeping the same naming convention will preemptively give customers a certain expectation. That it'll do what the previous iteration did. If Nintendo opt to name the next platform...Dolphin...folks will be less likely to make an impulse-purchase. They're more likely to ask questions and vet the product, especially if we're expecting a price tag of $350-$400 for a device aimed at children / young adults.

Not directly Switch related but something I've noticed I kinda do, curious if anyone else does the same. I've noticed that I tend to use Nintendo's console generations as a kind of landmark for easily remembering parts of my life. And it lines up surprisingly well

The SNES era for me was early primary school. We weren't super well off so I got a SNES late, for me this era gaming was DOS and Sega Master System. The N64 era for me was late-primary (US would call it middle-school I guess). I didn't have an N64 but I did want one. What I did get in this era was a Gameboy and a SNES. And obviously this was when everyone went down the Pokemon rabbit hole

Gamecube era was High School for me. I saw the Gamecube in the shops but was otherwise completely unaware of it. I was more interested in musics, Nirvana, Silverchair, Powderfinger, Spiderbait, Smashing Pumpkins. I was kinda interested in the GBA because it was basically a portable SNES but never got one. Was far more interested in messing around with PCs. GTA Vice City, C&C Generals, Age of Empires, Halo.

Then I got to UNI.... pretty much exactly when the Wii and DS era started. I was doing a CS degree so obviously I was going even deeper into the PC rabbit hole but I also went Linux on my main PC (Athlon64 3000+) so gaming wasn't really part of that equation. Nintendo was it. Picto-chat in lectures, Mario Kart DS and Pokemon in breaks. Golden era of Nintendo gaming for me

When I finish UNI? We hit the 3DS and Wii U eras. And this is when I get thrown into the real world and, like a lot of people in their 20s, meander around not knowing what I'm doing. Which is fitting because that's pretty much what Nintendo was also doing during this period. But it also really sucked because the point in my life where I had the most time on my hands is also the period where there weren't many games

And then the Switch launches and at more-or-less the same time I land a decent job. Huge flood of games, plenty of money to spend, no time to play games. And now we're on the verge of a new console...... right as I'm within maybe a year of buying a house.....

I swear, Nintendo spies on me and organises product launches around my life milestones

@skywake It is this sort thinking/feeling that brought me away from PC gaming and back into consoles.

PC gaming, along with various other issues, doesn't have much of an identity. It all just blends into an endless mass of content with controller/driver issues sprinkled liberally throughout.

What really attracted me to consoles was the sense of identity. A console defines chapters in a gamers life far more than PCs can. I know some people seem to have vivid memories of when they bought a particular graphics card, but graphics cards do not carry the same mainstream gravitas that consoles do.

And then you have the specific library of games attached to a console that PCs don't have. That's starting to blur a bit now with all the digital content delivery, remasters and remakes, but looking back from Switch to NES, the bulk of the library is still very much a defined thing associated with that period in time.

@Croctopus Thing is, Nintendo already have done this, and probably worst of all, with the 3DS and then the New 3DS which had some games that couldn't be played on the old one (Xenoblade Chronicles 3?)

@gcunit
True, although it's also kinda one of the advantages of PC gaming. I do tend to upgrade my PC in one way or another around about every 5 years. And because it's every 5 years or so that has broadly lined up with the above. As you said I don't really associate many of the "landmark" titles in my PC gaming history with one specific platform

But that's also because they're not tied to one specific platform

Swings and roundabouts

I wouldn't say I think about it too often - but yeah, I've noticed precisely the same thing. We must be of similar age because the milestones for me are pretty much the same.

I guess a lot of things in life come in 4-7 year cycles so it's only natural that console generations do as well.

I'm not big into Naruto anymore (my interest ended with Shippuden), but how about that collectors edition over at the Bamco Store. Tempting.

sadly Red Dead Redemption 2 will not come to Nintendo Switch

does it too late for Nintendo Switch to have a exclusive Donkey Kong game?

Yes, at this point just save whatever is coming up in the series for the switch successor.

To be blunt, with new hardware probably within a year and almost surely within 18 months I'm not sure why any dev would be attempting to port something like RDR2 to Switch. I mean sure there's value you could get out of it but you'd be putting a hell of a lot more effort into it vs targeting the "Switch 2". And as a reward for your effort you'll likely just be punished by consumers who at that point will be looking for content to justify their new hardware purchase

To be clear, there's still value in porting to Switch I think. Just at this stage the "impossible port" tier is, I think, a bit of a dead-end

the Switch is like an Xbox 360 in a world of things much more powerful.

Going through F-Zero X but at 60fps this time because the NSO version is NTSC (VC was PAL for Europe) has been quite the experience. I think I may actually prefer the PAL version, that felt more stable for some reason.